Why do EA suck

johnny_ultimate

I used to be a huge EA critic. And yes, the Sims: H&M Advertising Spectacular expansion pack is a step too far. But they do a lot of good too: they are the retail distributors of Valve games, have promoted unique new IPs like Mirrors Edge, distributed fantastic games when no one else would (We Katamari, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath), and from what I hear their sports games are getting better as time goes while the likes of Pro Evo and Tony Hawks slip into lazy mediocrity.

So yes, their Dead Space DLC plans are horrific, but a lot of good comes with the bad. In fact, some of the most creative games of the year have come from their studios.

Gunmonkey

Just played the Dead Space demo and its awesome. Another great game from EA.

evil-monkey

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Oh believe me, I know plenty who buy all of them That's the problem - 15euro a pop and you could probably download similar, in not better stuff, for free!

such as??

seraphimvc

EA killed C&C and NFS series,afaik

mayordenis

seraphimvc wrote: »

EA killed C&C and NFS series,afaik

:eek:

Command & Conquer: Generals
Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

you have got to be kidding me.

Ciaran500

mayordenis wrote: »

Command & Conquer: Generals
Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

All of them fairly average tbh

seraphimvc

mayordenis wrote: »

:eek:

Command & Conquer: Generals
Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

you have got to be kidding me.

is not that they are bad,but Westwood can do so much better can they?EA is squeezing every penny they can make from these good old legendary series making them become something 'meh' quality games.think back of Red Alert1.

and NFS was such a let down those recent ones.NFS2 was on everyone's pc back then

C&C and NFS series used to be a STR and racing game hallmark present

mayordenis

Aww man they were/are all really good games,
generals is unbelievably fun online/LAN - my opinion of course

and yea NFS has gone down hill but it was always a limited franchise that could only go so far. It's been milked dry.

Azza

In fairness to EA regarding the CnC series, both Tiberium Sun and Red Alert 2 never reached the very high standards of the first 2 CnC games and they where both developed by Westwood, both games where considered good but nothing special. That is pretty much the standard EA have kept with all the CnC games they developed, good but not truely great games. I would have to say my favourite of the EA selection would be Generals and its expansion Zero Hour.

My problem with the CnC series is that it never even attempts to break new ground and I have simply developed fatigue over time for its type of RTS gameplay.

As for Need for Speed, I think the best one they managed was Most Wanted but the series never particularly interested me. Having said that I played the first one way back on the 3D0 and it was a classic. But the overall majority of the Need for Speed titles have been average at best.

Maximilian

If EA keep making games like Dead Space then all is forgiven as far as I'm concerned.

Overheal

I never could get generals working online. dont ask me why, as like i said in post #2, I really just dont ****ing know. but youre right donkey, they are good games. They just still lack the support. God help you if you have a technical issue.

Gunmonkey

C&C 3 was fun, not outstanding, but good for a few hours of Mammoth tank tomfoolery. But compared to more recent RTS, such as Dawn of War/ Company of Heroes/ Supreme Commander/ Homeworld/ Sins of a Solar Empire (and a few more I will be reminded of soon I bet) the C&C games seem dated and old fashioned. Also makes wonder what the reception to Starcraft 2 will be as it doesnt seem to do much apart from a few new units.

As for NFS, I never really liked it that much, was always more interested in the Burnout series, which have all been great games. Its a good thing EA arent involved with them or they would be **** games with naff DLC :rolleyes:

R0ot

My main beef with them was over battlefield 2, just the fact they gave in to every public player demand without question. The clans are the people that buy the servers and keep their game popular and EA decided to ignore them almost completely. Also the deployment of each patch was horrible even thought that was a mix of Dice/EA. :pac:

At this point its pretty much like they own everything now, and this in my opinion will effect the quality of the games they are responsible for, pushing for earlier release dates etc.

Ross_Mahon

I recently bought a Nvidia GeForce GTX 260, i got Red alert 3 for 25 euro in game, the game insults my graphics card! I thought they could have went a lot further with visuals, Its a good all around game though.

Five installations will be allowed for Red alert 3, I've re-installed previous titles lots of times over the years, Damn you EA.

Azza

Ross_Mahon

Its actually 5 activations that are allowed, not installations. Unless you have upgraded 2 different components on your PC, re-installed your operating system or installed it on different PC then you still be on the first activation. So you can install it as many times as you want on up to 5 different PC's if you wanted too.

However its all irrelevant now as EA have issued an activation revoke tool for Red Alert 3 (included in patch 1.05) and Spore, meaning there is no need to be concerned about activation limits at all. All this anti SecuROM stuff on the net was greatly exaggerated by the pro-piracy brigade.

Dead Space and Mass Effect are still awaiting a de-activation tool however, but I'm pretty sure they will come in time.

Ciaran500

Azza wrote: »

All this anti SecuROM stuff on the net was greatly exaggerated by the pro-piracy brigade.

I don't know why it would be the "pro-piracy brigade" kicking up a fuss about this, all the games except Mass Effect were cracked and available online up to a week before release.

mayordenis

Azza wrote: »

All this anti SecuROM stuff on the net was greatly exaggerated by the pro-piracy brigade.

You're right and wrong.

not having a go here btw and I never pirate games - I bought Far Cry 2(i know it's ubisoft) and wasn't able to get it activated at all the first weekend, same with Spore.
I didn't have any issue with RA3 - but it's simply not acceptable for me a paying customer (a release day full price paying customer) to be saddled with this nonsense, no?

Azza

I know Spore was cracked maybe one or two days before release, but Mass Effect was cracked after its American release date (before its European date). Not sure about Red Alert 3 and Dead Space though. The whole idea of these copyright protection system is to prevent zero day piracy (i.e piracy before release) and casual piracy and not the massive online after release piracy. its not something I would hold against EA but at the same time I would like garuntees that de-activation tools will be released at some stage for all the games that use this type of system, something that I would also like from Valve, that if ever for what ever reason can no longer run Steam that they will release patches so all our games from Steam will still work.

mayordenis
As for Far Cry 2 I was not aware that it had activation limits. I do know that it required online activation but I do not personally mind that, I had no issues activating it or GTA IV. Yes its frustrating when you can't activate it. I had that issue with Bioshock but it was resloved within one day. Spore I had no issues with but I know others did. These issues are usually resloved very quickly. Also it was the same situation with HL2 on release, Steam could not cope with the bandwidth required and the same issues occured and everyone was furious with Valve. But the fury subsided and Steam is extremely popular now, but it forces us to be online when we install the game as well and if Steam ever goes offline which it has done on a few occasions and we are not logged into offline mode, we can't play any of our Steam games and that has happend to me. Again its frustrating but Steam isn't getting the bad press that SecuROM is and it enforces a similar system on us. Newer versions of XP and Windows Vista require activation and its accepted, why does it not get slated over that fact either.

If the activation system is unacceptable to you then you should of not of bought the game in the first place. Its on the box so you can make a decision before purchasing.

mayordenis

Azza wrote: »

If the activation system is unacceptable to you then you should of not of bought the game in the first place. Its on the box so you can make a decision before purchasing.

No, I'll still support the industry. I just think that alot of consumers are getting the short end of the straw.
I might aswell give up football when a ref gives a decision against me I don't agree with.
Don't be so flippant.

Azza

I'd rather not have the activation system either but I'm willing to accept it as I understand the need for some form of protection against piracy and I do not find too much of an incovience. My orignial point was that its incovience factor was greatly exagerrated (not that I had no issues with it at all) and alot of falsehoods where passed on over the net about it. But people seem to go on (led by these falsehoods and then propogating them) about it like its the spawn of the anti-christ and it had on several occasions run over their dog and taken a leak in there letterbox. If you read the EULA that comes with your game you will find your customer rights are pretty much unaltered.

Check out the lengthy tweakguide article on PC Game Piracy,
http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_1.html

Info on SecuROM is page 9
http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_9.html

Sorry about dragging thise topic onto PC piracy but the the type of DRM EA uses does affect there reputation among gamers.

Ross_Mahon

Azza wrote: »

Ross_Mahon

Its actually 5 activations that are allowed, not installations. Unless you have upgraded 2 different components on your PC, re-installed your operating system or installed it on different PC then you still be on the first activation. So you can install it as many times as you want on up to 5 different PC's if you wanted too.

However its all irrelevant now as EA have issued an activation revoke tool for Red Alert 3 (included in patch 1.05) and Spore, meaning there is no need to be concerned about activation limits at all. All this anti SecuROM stuff on the net was greatly exaggerated by the pro-piracy brigade.

Dead Space and Mass Effect are still awaiting a de-activation tool however, but I'm pretty sure they will come in time.

Thanks for clearing that up for me, So there is no more worrying about buying another disc! I will be upgrading to Vista soon, But i don't think there will be any other changes after that.

Nuri Sahin

The suck as it took far too long to sort out their FIFA series.

Beside the last 2 years, their last awesome game was FIFA 2000. Which was class, many a good hour/day/month spent on that

Well, at least now they have finally sorted out for the most part.

But Tiger Woods's games are stale and they have done **** all to improve them :mad:

I more grief with Konami now, bunch of stinking imbeciles who have ruined no doubt the best football game ever made.

Overheal

Anyway they did the wise thing and got on the Steam platform. I imagine they did it just to hatchet away at most of their DRM critics. Euros and Dollars being a seperate issue, it may yet feel reasonable to buy Spore or Mass Effect at some time in the future. You know, when the price gets below $30.

speedboatchase

EA were one of the best publishers this game, yis are mad. FIFA 09, Dead Space, Mirrors Edge, Boom Blox - I can't complain